National Library of Canada Expansion from 1967 to the Mid–1970s

Canada's centennial, 1967, was not just a time to reflect on the country's past but a time to look forward as well. After the $13 million Public Archives and National Library Building on Wellington Street opened in June, both archivists and librarians had better facilities and more staff to provide their services. The National Library had grown to more than 200 workers. When Dr. W.K. Lamb, the Dominion Archivist and National Librarian, retired in 1968, a decision was made to appoint separate directors for the two institutions. The new National Librarian was Guy Sylvestre, an author, civil servant, and Associate Director of the Library of Parliament from 1956-68. Dr. Sylvestre had worked in Ottawa for a quarter of a century and possessed a good knowledge of library activity across Canada. Now he was in a position to exploit his contacts in the nation's capital and develop ideas about the National Library (NLC) that would make it more relevant in the expanding Canadian information environment.

The first major development on Dr. Sylvestre's watch was a revised National Library Act, which came into force in September 1969. The National Librarian was charged with coordinating the library services of departments, branches, and agencies of the federal government and authorized to enter into agreements with libraries, associations, and institutions "in and outside Canada." One positive result from this was the eventual exchange of MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) magnetic tape records with the Library of Congress and other national libraries. Automation projects and standards became essential building blocks for library progress after 1970. 'Systems' became a library catchword, spawning many acronyms and a Research and Planning Branch at the NLC staffed by programmers and analysts. Standards were also a priority; thus, the CAN/MARC format was developed for English and French language records and international cataloging activities coordinated by a new Office of Library Standards established in 1973.

 While the NLC explored and developed computerized systems and standards, it also began a fundamental reorganization of its collections and introduced new services for Canadian libraries, the federal government, and the public. Some notable highlights were:

•  creation of a Music Division in 1970 under the leadership of Dr. Helmut Kallmann, who built an impressive collection of Canadian manuscripts, printed materials, and audio recordings. When he retired in 1987, the NLC's music collection was internationally recognized. Kallmann received the Order of Canada in 1986.
• establishment of a Library Documentation Centre to capture information on library development for use of Canadian librarians and libraries. The Centre began publishing an annual Directory of Library Associations in Canada in 1974.
• formation of Canadian Book Exchange Centre (1973) to acquire and distribute government publications to Canada a few foreign countries. By 1975, the Centre was handling a million items annually.
• beginning of historical bibliographic work on pre-1900 Canadiana emanating from a new Retrospective National Bibliography Division.
• establishment of a Division for the Visually and Physically Handicapped, which initially attempted to provide reference services and cooperate with libraries and organizations on various projects.
• start of work by the Federal Libraries Liaison Office (est. 1970) to improve the coordination of Government of Canada library services. After an extensive survey of almost 200 federal libraries, this office recommended formation of a Council of Federal Libraries which came into being in 1976. The Office and Council were key elements in allowing the NLC to coordinate federal library activities and in offering its constituent government members to work on problems on a cooperative basis.
•  forming of a Rare Books and Manuscripts Division with a reading room in 1973 to organize rare materials, offer reference, develop policies on acquisitions, and preserve collections.
• initiating a Children's Literature Service to coordinate national activities. It began issuing supplements to Sheila Egoff and Alvine Bélisle's  Notable Canadian Children's Books in 1977.
• inauguration of a Multilingual Biblioservice in 1973: this multicultural project acquired, cataloged, and loaned books in languages other than French and English to Canadian libraries (mostly public) for two decades.
• commencement in 1973 of Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services concentrating on the humanities and social sciences. SDI was designed to offer timely information through the use of burgeoning computerized databases, e.g. Psychological Abstracts and ERIC.
• establishment of a Collections Development Branch with responsibility to systematize selections for the NLC, collect information on policies of major libraries, and offer assistance in resource development of Canadian libraries.
• implementation of Canadian Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) after a successful pilot project begun in 1976. It was a cooperative project which provided publishers with basic cataloging information and reduced original cataloging costs.
• assignment of standard numbers for serials and books -- ISSN and ISBN -- to register and identify Canadian publications in an international publishing environment.
•  expansion of its own interlending activities and locational identification service for libraries.

It was a busy and exciting period at the NLC. Legal deposit was expanded, important exhibitions held, international conferences hosted, and many studies published, such as Roll Back the Years, a history of Canadian recorded sound. Staffing expanded dramatically, from about 200 in 1967 to more than 450 by the mid-1970s. Likewise, the operating budget rose from just less than $1.5 million to almost $10 million. However, there were challenges on the horizon. The main building was no longer adequate to house collections and staff. The Public Archives was similarly faced with space problems. Automation of the Union Catalogue was only just beginning. The NLC continued to share its Canadian mandate with the newly formed Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, a creation of the National Research Council, which opened its own building in 1974 for more than a million items and a staff of more than 100. Federal government initiatives were now more explicit about the need for long-range plans and multi-year financing; as a result, incremental change was becoming more difficult to implement in budget requests.

Consequently, Dr. Sylvestre launched a comprehensive review of the NLC's mandate and activities in 1976. He was hoping to develop a consensus about the future of the NLC with broad-based input from the Canadian library community and to provide an appropriate plan of action for the 1980s. Regional initiatives by other library agencies, like UNICAT/TELECAT, a bilingual automated cataloguing system used by libraries in Quebec and Ontario, were in development. The NLC had grown dramatically, but could it sustain its services and continue to expand? A certain amount of skepticism had arisen in the early 1970s about cooperative library projects--these efforts often did not deliver the same benefits to all participants and could engender divisive debates.

In the developing funding climate of governments and public administrators at all levels 'financial restraint' was becoming a byword and 'cutback management' would soon enter the administrative lexicon. Annual inflation rates of 7-11% rapidly eroded revenue increases. Dr. Sylvestre was known on occasion (e.g., at the Canadian Library Association's Edmonton conference in 1978) to lament that NLC funding was inadequate to the many tasks at hand. Was the NLC's glass to be "half full or half empty;" would there be a "silver lining" in the clouds? Much was riding on the results of its consultative assessment and resultant report, The Future of the National Library of Canada which is the subject of another post here in Library History Today.

The Amulree Commission Report (1933) and Newfoundland Public Libraries

Newfoundland Royal Commission 1933: Report. William Warrender Mackenzie, 1st Baron Amulree, chair. London. H.M.S.O., 1933. vi, 283 p., maps.

The Newfoundland Royal Commission, 1933

Important advances were made in Canada in the 1930s by the provision of Carnegie grants for public library development in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. However, in Newfoundland library development was sparked by economic hardship and an entirely different investigative process. At the beginning of 1900, Newfoundland remained a Crown Colony of the British Empire and did not achieve the status of a self-governing Dominion until 1907. The capital, St. John's, had the misfortune of seeing its Carnegie promise of $50,000 for a free public library, made in June 1901, lapse despite the best efforts of a prominent judge, Daniel W. Prowse, who successfully lobbied for passage of a Public Libraries Act in 1902 (2 Edw. VII c.20). Although a city library board was established, early efforts to erect a building were not realized due to problems related to housing a museum and municipal offices.

Municipal library promotion was neglected for a time although enabling legislation continued in force. Eventually, debts stemming from the First World War and the onset of economic turmoil after 1929 led to increasingly unstable political conditions in Newfoundland. In the midst of a bleak depression, the Newfoundland government requested loans from Great Britain to alleviate its dire financial state and in the process suspended its own self-governance at the end of 1933. The British government established a Royal Commission to examine the future of Newfoundland and make recommendations on the island's finances, fisheries, and political status. It marked the end of almost eighty years of ‘responsible government,’ and for the next fifteen years (1934–1949) Newfoundland and Labrador would continue to be administered by an appointed Governor and the unelected Commission.

The Commission was chaired by Lord Amulree, William Warrender Mackenzie, 1st Baron Amulree, who conducted an extensive survey of Newfoundland's political, economic, and social conditions with a few colleagues during the first six months of 1933. One feature of the Commission report, seldom commented on by library historians in Canadian studies, was the observations and suggestions about the island's libraries. In a chapter on subsidiary considerations, the Commission reported:

We were much surprised, on our arrival at St. John's, to find that there was no public library in the capital. The need for such a library need not be stressed. The provision of a public library is wholly beyond the immediate resources of the Government, nor could we expect that an appeal for subscriptions for this purpose could be launched with success at the present time. (para. 628)

Of course, by ‘public library’ the commissioners meant a tax-supported library freely open to the public. Subscription libraries, mechanics' institutes, and rental libraries had long been the mainstay of library provision on the island since the early 19th century. In its concluding library section, the Amulree Report recommended that "We understand that arrangements are in view for the establishment of a public library in St. John’s. We think it is important that public libraries should be established in the larger out ports as opportunity offers and that steps should be taken to extend and improve the recently instituted service of travelling subscription libraries." (para. 629) The report recognized that a public library for residents in St. John's was necessary, as well as service to rural and remote communities.

Grenfell Mission library, St. Anthony, c. 1916

A decade before, in 1926, the Carnegie Corporation of New York had provided $5,000 at the request of the Newfoundland Bureau of Education to establish a remote travelling library service. Memorial University College administered the grant, and requests for deliveries were shipped to schools and outport communities reached by coastal vessels; however, the service languished at the outset of the Great Depression after the Carnegie financing was expended.

More dependable long-term support came from the Grenfell Mission in Newfoundland and Labrador, which distributed books to coastal communities for decades as part of its medical and social services. Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865–1940) was a remarkable British medical missionary who dedicated most of his life to the provision of health-care services and social assistance in northern Newfoundland and Labrador. His Mission first established a working library in a schoolhouse on the northern peninsula at St. Anthony in 1914 with the aid of trained American librarians. It was a community effort: books were lent, clubs were formed, and story times held. In the 1930s, the library was relocated to an older building where it continued to serve as a community centre for adults and children by offering a space for meetings and table games for children.

Newfoundland Public Library Service Begins

Comments on libraries in the Amulree Report spurred immediate action in St. John's. A few citizens, led by the Commissioner for Public Utilities, Thomas Lodge, formed a committee in 1934 to begin planning for the establishment of a city public library. By January 22, 1935, a Public Libraries Act was passed allowing the Public Libraries Board to establish libraries and services, in effect creating a system similar to the emerging regional library systems already demonstrated in British Columbia and underway in Prince Edward Island. The fourth section of the new Act stated: “It shall be the duty of the Board to establish, conduct and maintain a public libraries or libraries in St. John’s and in other places in Newfoundland as the Board may deem expedient and to establish and maintain travelling or circulating libraries if the Board shall deem it expedient.” Further, section 6 of the Act permitted the Board to receive gifts or bequests of money and books, furniture and other things suitable for its purposes, and section 7 allowed the charging and collecting of fees “for the use of its libraries or of any of its facilities.” The Board reported to the Commissioner of Public Utilities and Harold Newell was appointed chief librarian.

The St. John’s Gosling Memorial Library (named for William Gilbert Gosling, a popular mayor from 1916–20) opened on 9 January 1936. It was initially housed on the top floor of the Newfoundland Museum building on Duckworth Street, which had been the original home of St. John's Athenaeum until 1898. The Gosling Library was the beginning of an expansion of public library service across Newfoundland and Labrador in the ensuing decades. At this time, the concept of regional libraries was being developed for the entire island. According to Jesse Mifflen, in the 1930s, “it referred to all libraries set up in relatively large towns; libraries were supposed to serve not only the town itself but schools and groups in neighbouring communities, and also to provide some of the bookstock for any small libraries situated in the area, and which were known as Branch Libraries.” There was no formal demarcation of regions within Newfoundland at this time.

Gosling Library staff, c. 1944

With the Gosling Library serving as a central resource, the Public Libraries Board, headed by Dr. A.C. Hunter, and through the work of its Outport Library Committee, eventually established a regional plan to provide library services to communities with a minimum population of 1,000 people to serve people in its jurisdiction. This plan was approved in 1942 by the British appointed Commission, which was assisted helped by another timely grant of $10,000 in 1940 from the Carnegie Corporation to purchase books. This scheme proved to be successful and included larger towns such as Corner Brook. All this progress can be traced back to the Amulree Report, the beneficence of the Carnegie Corporation, and the dedicated work of local citizens.

The Amulree Report was a crucial catalyst for improved public library services. Although it gave only fleeting reference to libraries and was not similar to the typical Canadian library survey or report on the development of services in the 1930s, its impact was evident. As a result, the Commission style government era was a key incubation period for the public library system before Newfoundland became a Canadian province in 1949.

Further reading:

Jesse Mifflen, The Development of Public Library Services in Newfoundland, 1934-1972. Halifax: Dalhousie University Libraries and School of Library Service, 1978.

The entire Amulree Report is available at the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website -- The Newfoundland Royal Commission, 1933 as a PDF.

An Act to Create a Public Libraries Board approved on 22 January 1935 is available at the Memorial University Digital Archive (commencing at original page 28).

The documentation for the lapsed Carnegie promise of $50,000 to St. John's in 1901 is at this link.

An article by Jennifer J. Connor documenting the Grenfell Mission's provision of reading material to coastal communities is at this link.

My blog on the regional studies of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in the 1930s is at this link. 

This blog was revised with updated information and links on November 6, 2025